Monday, June 16, 2008

"Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), a school that has received criticism in the past for torturing monkeys in its labs, has officially been outed. Information has been brought to light about ridiculous “gay sheep” experiments that are being conducted at the school. OHSU experimenter Charles Roselli is spending millions of taxpayer dollars to kill homosexual rams and cut open their brains in an attempt to find the hormone behind homosexual tendencies so that these tendencies can be changed. Roselli is also working with experimenter Frederick Stormshak of Oregon State University (OSU), who has surgically inserted an estrogen implant in the bodies of these rams in an effort “to restore tissue levels of estrogen comparable to those of heterosexual rams and affect sexual behavior accordingly.”

In addition to being cruel to animals, these experiments also carry the insidious implication that homosexuality in humans needs to be "cured." In his application for public funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the experimenter states that “this research also has broader implications for understanding the development and control of sexual motivation and mate selection across mammalian species, including humans.”

Please use the form below to write to OSU President Edward Ray and OHSU President-Elect Joseph Robertson Jr. asking that they immediately stop these needless “gay sheep” experiments and use taxpayers’ money for legitimate research instead."

16 comments:

Thank you for the NY Times link, I have seen what Mr. Roselli puts out to defend his tax-payer funded initiative. He is a good spin doc but nonetheless this is publicly funded animal research trying to find a "cure" for gayness.

Jim Newman here from OHSU. I urge you to visit a Web site where you can read factual information about the research:http://www.ohsu.edu/ohsuedu/research/facts/brainfuction_index.cfmorhttp://www.ohsu.edu/researchfacts/

There was an extensive smear campaign directed at Dr. Roselli and countered by the New York Times and others last year.

Also, here are a few links to press stories that provide a more truthful picture:The Guardian: Gay sheep? Let's get the facts straighthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1989430,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=11

National Post: How I fell for PETA's gay ram scamhttp://www.canada.com/nationalpost/columnists/story.html?id=01a31a64-0add-4761-b5ef-35aafbc1d5e2

New York Times: Of Gay Sheep, Modern Science and Bad Publicityhttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/science/25sheep.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5088&en=fceec7c701115eaf&ex=1327381200&partner=rss

ABC News: Are Some Sheep Gay?http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2823706&page=1

Finally, I urge you to read the actual research (links at the site I have given you). The researchers have never even attempted to "straighten" an animal. That's a myth. They actually tried to determine if a same sex preference animal could be bred. That's it.

Your own link goes to show how homophobic this research is. On the Guardian link you provided it says "The only similar work completed and published by them was about trying to make "straight" animals "gay" (they avoid those terms) and in any case, that experiment was negative: it failed to achieve this aim."

You are trying to alter animals sexuality. By trying to alter sexuality even though unsuccesful you are trying to demonstrate the capability to change. You conveniently tried to convert heterosexual animals, to avoid the label of homophobic, but it is obvious your true intentions are to find a solution to homosexuality in animals first and then in humans.

In addition to what was previously said, "trying to breed a same-sex preference animal" would indicate some sort of gene that could be manipulated. Why do this research at all? The agenda for Roselli is to alter genes with regards to homosexuality. I don't buy your spin and this homophobic not to mention cruel research should be stopped.

Obviously, the point of the experiment is to identify the "straight gene" and replicate it. If you weren't looking to consistently breed straight animals, why would one want to continue such research? It seems like there is a definite agenda to the experiments.

miss vicki, that's funny. In a horrible sort of way. I agree, there is much more we could be devoting this research money to. I just don't see the point in researching animal sexuality. Far better to be researching human and animal disease and health, terraforming, learning patterns, dying languages &mdash shoot, just about anything else.

...surgically inserted an estrogen implant in the bodies of these rams in an effort “to restore tissue levels of estrogen comparable to those of heterosexual rams and affect sexual behavior accordingly.”

Didn't they try this with Alan Turing?

I'm all for scientific advance, but I'd like to see the result of an ethics committee for this one.

PETA is using us and trying to co-opt our cause. If the scientists want to cure us (and I haven't seen any serious evidence they do) we'll tell them the same damn thing we've told them *every other time*, we refuse. Trying to cure homosexuality is nothing new.

Some people, myself included, would simply like to the reason why they have same-sex attractions. Was it my social environment? Was it a gene? I don't know, no one does... but I would *like to*

If you take issue with the idea of experimenting on animals, say it. Don't try to drag the whole gay movement into it on the pretense its *inherently* homophobic.

Knowledge isn't good or bad, it can be used for bad things *or* it an be used for good things.

Knowing what gene (if it is a single gene and that's unlikely) is not good or bad either. Rather than fearing *knowledge* maybe we should focus on establishing a need for our rights regardless of what science tells us about the cause.